Review: Friend (With Benefits) Zone by Laura Brown

Today is a bad day. The worst actually. After dealing with the constant manhandling that comes with being a cocktail waitress at a dive bar and surviving a date from hell, I see an eviction notice slapped on the door of my sketchy basement apartment. Great.

When my best friend Devon shows up at my door and uses his stubborn charm (emphasis on stubborn) to get me to move in with him, I give in. We’ve had about a million sleepovers since we met in the kindergarten Deaf program, but this time it’s different because I can’t stop thinking about his hard body covering mine, every single night.

I know Devon would do anything for me, but I’m afraid what I want to happen will ruin our friendship forever. And the more time we spend together in close quarters, the harder it’ll be to resist the spark of attraction I’ve always felt. But maybe it’s possible to have the best of both worlds: keep the one relationship I can’t live without and indulge in an attraction I can’t deny.

I received this book for free from the Publisher or Author in exchange for an honest review, or I purchased it with my own funds. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I don’t know why but I kind of expected Friend (With Benefits) Zone to be a humorous book. I think it’s the combination of two ‘friend’ phrases being mashed together. Well, that and the blurb. It contained some keywords that had me thinking this should be a funny, sweet story. I was wrong.

I’m really on the fence with this one. On one hand, I loved the story. Lifelong friends becoming something more, working the whole friends things, the bumps along the way to get to their HEA. All the pining away, the angst sometimes makes for great reading. Sometimes. What can kill it for me is too much angst, too many bumps. And that there is where I have issues.

Not with Devon. He was great although at times it was just a bit too much of a helper. I can see this could be a bit annoying but when it’s come from the heart, you have to just love them for it. Then there is the family and friends. I loved all the extra characters especially Blake, Nikki and Pete. Funny, familiar and willing to point out the obvious to those they love. Without them, the story wouldn’t have been complete. That leaves one person and there is where my problem lays.

*Sigh* Jasmine. She was just too much. Too much pride, too much drama, too much angst. At first, it wasn’t too bad. I get why she has issues. Her father died when she was young and her mom emotional checked out. We eventually find out why her mom is the way she is and while it wasn’t great, it did make sense. She doesn’t want to depend on someone else and get hurt again. I. Get. It. Nevertheless, there comes a time where you begin to think okay now she’s gonna come around. No? Okay now. Umm..how about now? There will eventually be a now, right? And so begins the story dragging. Like a record with a skip, it just kept coming and coming.

Now to be clear, Friend (With Benefits) Zone did not suck. On the contrary, I did like it. The beginning was great, the ending even better, it’s just some stuff in the middle that had my mind wandering. Yes, I would still recommend the book because I like what I have read by author Laura Brown. I would just add a clause to the recommendation.